Slides on Liu Cixin's "The Poetry Cloud"

1. The Poetry Cloud
Liu Cixin

2. The Poetry Cloud
• Written by Liu Cixin in 1997.
Originally published in the March
2003 issue of Science Fiction
World
• Story explores relationship
between technology and arts/
humanities
• Nonlinear structure - moves back
and forth in space and time
• Significance of the title in digital
era (contradiction between poetry
and data storage)

3. Tips for reading
“The Poetry Cloud”
• Alienation and displacement—in
space, time, social condition, and/or
being
• Shifts in scale and perspective to
produce irony, critique, and
speculation
• Provides new perspective or vantage
point (often nonhuman)
• Allows for multiple scales and shifts in
perspective - allows us to see the
relationship between science and art
in different ways
• Toys with time and space; allows us to
inhabit different perceptual modes
• Encounters with radical Other (other
worlds, other people, other situations)

4. They are on a yacht, Yiyi and two others, sailing across the south
Pacific Ocean on a poetry composition cruise. Their destination, the
South Pole. If all goes well, they will arrive in a couple of days’ time and
then pierce through the Earth’s crust to see the Poetry Cloud.
The sky and ocean are crystal clear today, much too clear for poetry
composition. The American continent that’s usually hidden from view
can now be observed plainly floating above in the sky, forming a dark
patch on the eastern hemisphere that envelopes the world like a giant
dome. The continent looks not much different from a patch of wall left
exposed when the sheathing has fallen off ...
Oh, by the way, people now live inside the Earth, or to be more exact,
people now live inside a balloon. That’s right, the Earth has been
turned into a balloon. It has been hollowed out, leaving behind only a
thin crust about a hundred kilometres thick. (87)
Opening passages of “The Poetry Cloud”

5. So the Earth is now a balloon, a balloon with continents and oceans
stuck to its inner surface. This hollow Earth still revolves on its axis, but
the effect of the spin is very different: It now provides the Earth’s
gravity.
Gravity is now mainly generated by the centrifugal force caused by
Earth’s rotation. This gravity is, however, not evenly spread across the
world: it is strongest at the equator…
The latitude that the yacht now sails on has exactly the standard
gravitational force of the original Earth, but Yiyi still finds it very difficult
to regain the feelings of the old world, the feelings that one would have
felt on the now disappeared solid Earth.
Opening passages of “The Poetry Cloud”

6. Plot & Backstory
• The Devourer Empire - has been
plundering the Solar System for two
centuries
• Empire consists of prehistoric
dinosaurs who live in a large Ring-
World planet (can experience four
dimensions)
• They abducted 1.2 billion humans to
raise as poultry & livestock
• Gods return to Solar System, sparking
Empire to return.
• Ambassador Big-tooth brings Yiyi,
human poet, as a gift to the gods
• Gods are one of the super-civilizations
(evolved to a technological level where
they experience eleven dimensions)

7. Nonlinear Structure
• Story opens with three characters on
a yacht, traveling to the Poetry Cloud
• “A Gift”—10 years prior to the
opening
• “The Alternative Route”—2 months
after the meeting with gods (Li Bai’s
decision to create poetry composing
software)
• “The Ultimate Poetry Composition”—
creation requires destruction of the
solar system
• “The Poetry Cloud”—visit to the
Poetry Cloud

8. Characters/Agents in “The Poetry Cloud”
• Yiyi
• Human being. A poet. Teaches classical literature to humans in breeding
farms
• Lives in a hut; left alone because his lectures on poetry produce special flavor
in his students’ meat
• Ambassador Big-tooth
• Ten-meter-tall dinosaur; ambassador of the Devourer Empire; proponent of
technology (unable to feel)
• Gods
• abstract shapes (plane and sphere); exist in form of pure energy. They have
mastered unimaginable technologies. They space travel across galaxy
• Li Bai
• Clone of Yiyi; with gods memories implanted in the clone
• Dressed in ancient-style robe, like those from Tang dynasty

9. Li Bai
Also known as Li Bo. A Chinese
poet acclaimed for taking poetic
forms to transcendent heights.
Prominent figure in the “Golden Age
of Chinese Poetry,” which took
place during the Tang dynasty (618
to 906 A.D.)
Li Bai Strolling, by Liang Kai (1140–1210)
“This is the creator of the new
world, the great Li Bai.”
- “The Poetry Cloud” (88)

10. Li Bai
• More than a 1000 poems have
been attributed to him
• Poet during the Tang dynasty,
which is considered a golden
age of Chinese arts and culture
between 618 and 906 A.D.
• Translations of his poems
appear in Europe in 17th century
• Poems celebrate the pleasures
of friendship, nature, solitude,
and drinking wine
• Life has become legendary (tales
of drunkenness, chivalry).

11. Classical Chinese Poetry

12. Big-tooth’s technological bias
Yiyi pronounced the words ‘poet’ and ‘literature’ with some difficulty, as
these were very rarely used words in Devourish.
‘A boring and useless learning indeed! But the breeders have turned a
blind eye to your teaching activities as the contents seem to be mentally
helpful to you bugs, and thus improve the quality of your meat ... I’ve
noticed that you think yourself noble and pure, and others to be beneath
your notice. Very interesting feelings for a little fowl from a feed-lot.’
‘Thus the way with all poets.’ Yiyi straightened himself in the pocket, proudly
holding his head high, though he knew that Big-tooth could not see this.
…
‘A most useless kind of bug, very rare on Earth even then.’
‘He lives in his own inner world, and does not care for the changes
happening around him” (89)

13. The gods’ and Big-tooth’s view of technology
• Technology as the means and instrument of progress
• Technology as a means to solve world problems
• Technology is an unsurpassable form for development

14. Poetry
Art
Beauty
Ideas & Ideals
Meaning
Interpretation
Humanities
Technology
Computers
Data
Storage
Science
Materials/Matter
Processing
Where is the “meaning” of civilization?
clashing perspectives on culture & civilization

15. I. A Gift
“As the sheets floated in the air,
a thin ray of light shot out from
the sphere, hitting one of them,
suspending it in mid-air, and
scanning it in a flash.”

16. The white radiance of the sphere and plane again flickered twice and
the god’s voice sounded in a sneer, ‘Civilization? Ambassador, tell this
bug the meaning of civilization.’
Big-tooth raised Yiyi to eye level, and held him so close that Yiyi could
even hear the gurgling sound of his eyeballs turning in their sockets.
‘Bug, the uniform measurement of how civilized a race is in this
universe is the space dimension that it has entered. Only those that
have entered the sixth dimension or above can be regarded as having
met with the basic criteria for joining the circle of civilized races. The
race of our venerable god already possesses the ability to enter the
eleventh dimension. The Devourer Empire is able to, on a small scale
limited to laboratory trials, enter the fourth dimension, which means
that we can only be regarded as a primitive tribe, while your race is
nothing more than weed or moss to the gods.’
Measuring Civilizations
by degrees of dimensional travel

17. ‘Wait! What’re these?’
Holding Yiyi suspended right above the incinerator, Big-tooth turned
towards the sphere.
‘Those ... are my student’s homework!’ Yiyi answered, struggling hard
inside the dinosaur’s claw.
‘Those square symbols are very interesting, and so are the little
matrixes they create,’ the god muttered, sending out rays and swiftly
scanning the other sheets of paper that had already landed on the
plane.
‘Those are Chinese ... Chinese characters. These are classical poems
written in Chinese characters!’ (91)
The gods’ curiosity about poetry

18. ‘Those square symbols are very interesting, and so are the
little matrixes they create,’ the god muttered.
The only surviving calligraphy in Li Bai's own handwriting

19. ‘Behind a mountain the day fades, the Yellow River uniting with the ocean. Scenes a
thousand miles away, one may survey from a higher floor.’
Big-tooth explained, ‘It means a star has fallen behind a mountain on a
planet, and a river called the Yellow River flowed towards an ocean. You see, both
river and ocean are formed by compounds of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen
atoms. And if someone wants to see further away, he should climb higher on a
building.’
The god stayed silent.
‘So I do know the meaning,’ the god said, and the sphere suddenly moved,
stopping right above Big-tooth’s head. Yiyi thought that it was like a giant eye
without a pupil, glaring fixedly at Big-tooth. ‘But do you not feel anything at all?’
Big-tooth shook his head in bewilderment.
‘I mean, things that are hidden within the apparent meanings of this simple
matrix of symbols?’
Big-tooth became more puzzled still, and so the god recited another poem.
Big-tooth’s method of interpretation

20. ‘Does art exist everywhere in the universe?’ [Yiyi asked]
The sphere trembled a little in mid-air, as if nodding, ‘Yes, I myself am a
collector and researcher of the art of the universe. I travel between
nebulas and have made contact with various art forms of numerous
civilizations. Most are complicated and obscure. But this, with such
few symbols, making up such tiny matrixes yet expressing such
complex layers and subdivisions of feelings, all composed
under such strict, almost brutal, restrictions of style, metre and
rhyme is, I admit, something I had never seen before.
…
‘God, please keep those sheets of paper as relics of human classical
poetry! You have collected an unsurpassable art form; transmit it to
other parts of the universe.’
The Art of the Universe

21. ‘Did you see that? This is technology, the kind of power that enabled
our race to rise from slugs in the muddy ocean beds to gods.
Technology is the real God. We worship Him with our whole body and
soul.’
Yiyi blinked his eyes, still dazzled, ‘But even gods cannot surpass that
kind of art! We too have gods, imaginary gods, and we worship them
too; but we do not believe that they can create the kind of poetry
written by Li Bai or Du Fu.’
The god sneered, and said to Yiyi, ‘You are the most stubborn kind of
bug, which makes you even more repulsive. But, just for fun, I will
surpass your art form.’
Yiyi also sneered, ‘Impossible. For one thing, you are not human, and
cannot feel human passions. Human art is to you merely a flower
carved in stone, and you cannot overcome this obstacle with
technology.’
‘There can be nothing simpler than overcoming this “obstacle”. Give
me your genes.’
The Challenge

22. The clone held his hands above the blue flames, shivering as he said to
Yiyi, ‘What I am doing now is in fact ordinary enough. When I research
and collect any art form from a civilization, I always invest my memory
temporarily into a member of that civilization, thus ensuring that I truly
and wholly understand the art form.’
‘I am Li Bai, the Li Bai who can surpass Li Bai!’
Yiyi smiled and shook his head.
‘What? You doubt me?’
Yiyi nodded, ‘It’s true enough that your technology is way beyond my
understanding, and is to a human no different from magic or divine
power. There are things that make me gasp with wonder even in the
realm of poetry, that given such huge cultural, time and space barriers,
you can still grasp the true significance of Chinese classical poetry ...
but to understand Li Bai is one thing, surpassing him is quite another. I
still believe that what you face is a transcendent art form.’
God becomes human clone (in form of Li Bai)

23. On this stage was a dinosaur, a human who had been raised for meat like
poultry by the dinosaurs, and a god of technology in an ancient Tang-
dynasty robe who was preparing to surpass Li Bai. Actors in a truly bizarre
stage play, thought Yiyi with a bitter smile, shaking his head.
…
‘Fill it up,’ said Li Bai pointing to the empty bowl on the desk, and after
Big- tooth had filled it with the strong liquor, he drained it in one go, then
turned again to walk into the distance, sometimes taking uneven, dance-
like steps. Once he reached the edge, he stood there again facing the
galaxies in deep meditation. But this time his body swayed rhythmically
from left to right, as if in unison with an unheard tune. He did not take long
to meditate before returning to the desk with dancing steps the whole
way. He grabbed the brush that Yiyi handed to him, and flung it into the
distance.
‘Fill it again.’ Li Bai stared dully at the empty bowl.
the gods’ first attempt to write poetry

24. Li Bai &
Wine Pot

25. Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春⽇醉起⾔志)
處世若⼤夢, Life in the world is but a big dream;
胡爲勞其⽣. I will not spoil it by any labour or care.
所以終⽇醉, So saying, I was drunk all the day,
頹然臥前楹. Lying helpless at the porch in front of my door.
覺來盼庭前, When I awoke, I blinked at the garden-lawn;
⼀⿃花間鳴. A lonely bird was singing amid the flowers.
借問此何時, I asked myself, had the day been wet or fine?
春風語流鶯. The Spring wind was telling the mango-bird.
感之欲嘆息, Moved by its song I soon began to sigh,
對酒還⾃傾. And, as wine was there, I filled my own cup.
浩歌待明⽉, Wildly singing I waited for the moon to rise;
曲盡已忘情. When my song was over, all my senses had gone.
One of Li Bai’s most famous poems

26. II. The Alternative Route
The Ultimate Poetry Composition
Exercise

27. Li Bai’s experience of
human culture from Earth
• Food and drink
• Landscapes, beautiful scenery
• Drinking and reciting poetry
• love, sex, romance: “amorous
encounters in human feed-lots
all over this world”
• Learned poetry and written
beautiful poems
• Li Bai’s journey: learning the
arts and humanities

28. Yiyi’s argument
“‘Nature in the eyes of Li Bai is the girl you see now at the
riverside. The same nature in a pair of technologically-oriented
eyes is the bloody components lined up in an orderly fashion on
the white cloth. In other words, technology is anti-poetic.’
‘I still don’t think you have any chance of surpassing Li Bai, but
I can point you in the right direction for your efforts:
technology has clouded your eyes, concealing the beauty
of nature from you, so the first thing you should do is to
forget all about your super technology. Since you were able
to transplant all your memories into your current brain, you
must be able to delete a part of them too.’ (102)

29. The alternative route—create a poetry database
Li Bai stood up and said, ‘It’s simple. The two ways to surpass Li Bai are: 1. to write
poems that surpass his; 2. to write every possible poem!’
‘I will write every possible pentasyllabic and heptasyllabic poems, which were Li Bai’s
strong suit. I’ll also compose all possible lyrics to the common classical tunes! You still
don’t understand?! I’m going to try out all the possible combinations of Chinese
characters within these prosodic frames.’
I will then write all the poems, both those already written and those that might be written
in the future. Mark my word— all that might be written! That will certainly include poetry
that surpasses the greatest work of Li Bai. In fact, I will bring an end to the art of poetry:
any poet thereafter, till the end of time, will become a mere plagiarist. No matter how
highly regarded their work is, it will definitely be found in my enormous storage base.’
Big-tooth suddenly emitted a low howl of alarm. His gaze at Li Bai turned from
excitement to shock: ‘An enormous ... storage base? My venerable god, you aren’t really
saying that you are going to ... to store every single poem composed by the quantum
computer, are you?’

30. Data & Interpretation
(the contradiction within “the poetry cloud”)
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Alas
‘Are you telling me that this will be chosen as a masterpiece by the great
passage of time?!’
Yiyi, who had remained silent all the while, exclaimed in delight, ‘Wow! This
has no need of being selected by the great passage of time! It’s already a
masterpiece now. The first three lines along with the first four characters of
the last line express a sense of marvel at the magnificence of the universe,
while the last character is the “eye”, the focal point, of the poem, containing
the poet’s lamentation, after appreciating the vastness of the universe, at the
fleetingness of life against the infinity of time and space.’

31. III. The Ultimate Poetry
Composition
Fusion of matter into the elements
needed for making the ultimate
storage device

32. THE POETRY composing software was actually very simple, it would require just two
thousand lines of program code in the human created C language, plus a not- too-big
database storing all Chinese characters. When this software was activated on the
quantum computer (a giant transparent prism suspended in space) in Neptune’s orbit,
the ultimate poetry composition began.
When the poetry composition started…Humans in the Devourer Empire could neither
see the quantum computer in space, nor the newcomers from the godly race. From their
point of view, the process of the ultimate poetry composition equated to an increase or
decrease of the number of suns in space.
A week after the poetry composing software was activated, the godly race successfully
extinguished the sun, so the number of suns in the sky was reduced to zero.
…Li Bai then made another proposition: Let humans return to their mother planet.
Actually, the Earth had been dismantled too, most of it being used on the storage device,
but the godly race had built a hollow Earth for humankind from a small portion of the
leftover matter.
Poetry Composing Software
Seen from different perspectives

33. IV. The Poetry Cloud
Yacht on the poetry voyage
reaches South Pole to see the
poetry cloud

34. Perspectival Shifts in
Space-Time
• Gravity shifts—change the
behavior of waves, water, etc
• White-holes—allow for new
forms of travel across distance
• Gods able to transform
themselves into satellites
• Worm holes—on earth, you reach
space by jumping into deep wells
(then flung into space)
• With little gravity at South Pole,
the three travelers have to propel
themselves into space with jet
packs

35. The Poetry Cloud
• Located where the Solar
System used to be
• Spiral nebula 100 astronomic
units in diameter
• Hollow Earth is at the edge of
the Cloud
• Emits a silvery radiance that
casts shadow on Earth
• Beautiful descriptions of
strange shapes, colors, forms.
Seeing universe anew

36. Quantum Storage Chip
• Chips scattered around. Big-
tooth admires these are great
pieces of art.
• All texts produced in human
history would only take up one-
billionth of a chip’s storage
capacity
• Poetry Cloud made up of 10 to
the 40th power of such chips
(which now stores all the
output of the ultimate poetry
composition)

37. ‘What a great piece of art!’ hails Big-tooth sincerely.
…Yiyi looks up into the nebula and says with passion, ‘Even I have begun to
admire technology.’
Li Bai, who has been in low spirit, sighs, ‘It seems we are moving towards each
other. I see the limits of technology when applied to art. I ...’ He sobs, ‘I am a loser,
oh ...’
‘How can you say this?’ Yiyi points up to the Poetry Cloud. ‘That encompasses
all possible poems, which of course includes those that surpass Li Bai’s.’
‘Yet I cannot get hold of them,’ Li Bai stamps his foot, leaps a few metres high
and curls himself into a ball in mid-air. He buries his face between his knees in foetal
position and descends slowly in the tiny gravity of the Earth’s crust. ‘Since the
ultimate poetry composition began, I have been working on poetry
recognition software. However, technology met again with that
unsurpassable obstacle in art, and a program which can appreciate ancient
poetry is yet to be written.’ He points to the Poetry Cloud while still in mid-air. ‘I
have indeed composed the most supreme pieces of poetry by means of our great
technology, but I have been unable to locate them in the Poetry Cloud. Alas ...’
Reconciliation
the art of technology, the technology of art

38. Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Ah Ah Ah Ah Alas
Remember Yiyi’s interpretation of this poem:
The first three lines along with the first four characters of
the last line express a sense of marvel at the magnificence
of the universe, while the last character is the “eye”, the
focal point, of the poem, containing the poet’s lamentation,
after appreciating the vastness of the universe, at the
fleetingness of life against the infinity of time and space.’
Alas . . .
Li Bai’s Lamentation

39. Change & Revelation
• Li Bai recognizes the limits of
technology. Can create and
store poems, but fails in poetry
recognition. Unable to design
technology that can appreciate
ancient poetry
• Yiyi marvels at technological
creation of the Poetry Cloud
(contains all poems, including
poems that surpass Li Bai)
• Big-tooth becomes more
philosophical. Starts to question
his old views: “Is the essence
and nature of intelligent life really
unreachable by technology?”

40. The Gods’ Final Gift
• Li Bai gifts Yiyi and Big-tooth
with a quantum computer chip
of all poems with their names
as keywords. Poems that
portray all possible lives: past
and future
• Favorite poem of Li Bai tells a
love story of Yiyi and village girl
by the riverside
• Story ends with Yiyi’s curiosity
about the meaning of single
poem: “How did it go with me
and the village girl?”
• “Yiyi is curious”

41. “…under the silvery glow of the Poetry Cloud.”